Yellowstone, one of Paramount Network’s biggest hits, returned for its fifth season on November 13. The drama, starring Kevin Costner, Luke Grimes and Kelly Reilly, has spawned multiple spin-offs including the limited series 1883 and the upcoming 1923, and the season four finale in January broke records with more than 10 million viewers, “making it the most-watched cable show since the season three premiere of The Walking Dead in 2017,” as Broadcasting + Cable’s Jon Lafayette reported at the time.
According to Inscape, the currency-grade smart TV ACR data provider and data technology division of Vizio with insights from a panel of more than 20 million opted-in TVs, Yellowstone was the second most-watched show on November 13. Including reruns leading up to the two-hour season five premiere, the show in total accounted for 6.16% of all live, linear minutes watched during the day — behind only the NFL (27.24% of watch-time).
At the network level, Paramount Network captured 3.31% of all minutes watched on November 13, putting it in fifth place for watch-time, behind only the big four broadcast networks.
Measuring viewership across the full time period that Yellowstone season four covered (November 7, 2021 through January 2, 2022), the show was the No. 11 most-watched program, and accounted for nearly 64% of all minutes watched on Paramount Network during the season run.
Over the summer, while the show was between seasons, Paramount milked its popularity through a few weekend rerun marathons, which clearly engaged viewers: Inscape data for May 28 through September 5 reveals that it was the No. 1 most-watched program on Paramount Network, capturing 24.5% of all minutes watched. Each time a marathon aired, the show jumped into the top 50 ranking of programs on live, linear TV by watch-time across all networks for that TV week.
A week ahead of the season five premiere, Paramount used the marathon approach to get people excited for Yellowstone’s return: From November 5-6, the network aired hours of old episodes, capturing 1.12% of all minutes watched on TV that weekend, putting it solidly in sixth place for most-watched shows, behind only sports and reruns of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. ■
